THIS is the heartbreaking moment a desperate orangutan attacks a mechanical digger tearing down its jungle home.

The amazing footage, taken at Sungai Putri forest in Borneo in 2013, was uploaded to Facebook by workers from International Animal Rescue on Tuesday.

It shows the orangutan running along a fallen tree so it can reach out and grab the excavator’s bucket, as shocked logging workers look on.

As the bucket is lifted into the air, the great ape tries to hang on but is then knocked to the ground below. The beast then tries to scramble around the back of the bulldozer so it climb back on.

The animal charity revealed they were able to save the animal from harm and take him away to safety.

“This desperate orangutan is frantically seeking refuge from the destructive power of the bulldozer; a machine that has already decimated everything else around him,” said the charity.

“Despite all the obstacles thrown at them, our team were able to rescue this orangutan and bring him to safety.

“Unfortunately, scenes like this are becoming more frequent in Indonesia. Deforestation has caused the orangutan population to plummet; habitats are destroyed and orangutans are left to starve and die.”

Critically endangered apes in Borneo are still being threatened by illegal logging, more than a year after the Indonesian Government promised to end the practice.

Photos taken by Greenpeace in March showed six illegal logging settlements in Sungai Putri, a 57,000-hectare peatland forest that is home to about 1,200 orangutans. The orangutan population of the island, which is divided between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, has more than halved in 16 years and fewer than 100,000 remain.